Engineered Cellular Components to Fight Cancer

A new laboratory facility will produce and dispense engineered components made from a cancer patient's own cells to fight cancer. This is the Sramek Center for Cell Engineering at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center (Chicago, IL, USA). The new center is already conducting trials designed for patients with renal cell melanoma and lymphoma.

"This facility will be like a pharmacy, but instead of dispensing drugs it will dispense cells,” said Dr. Hans Klingemann, director of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapy at Rush. "Immunotherapy, using the patient's own cells to treat cancer, is increasing and has proven to be very successful.”

The initial focus of the laboratory will be on the proliferation of certain cellular components, particularly dendritic cells for tumor vaccination and a natural killer cell line known as NK-92. Dendritic cells are used to fight lymphomas, while NK-92 is used to treat kidney cancers and melanoma of the skin. Patients with renal cell carcinoma and melanoma will be enrolled in a study using NK-92 cells to determine whether the cells can control the disease. These cells have been shown to be effective in preclinical trials with mice.

Another new application will be the use of patient tumor-primed dendritic cells to treat a variety of cancers. The cells will be separated and placed in a bioreactor that contains special nutrients and growth factors to help the cells proliferate. Tumor cells collected from the patient will be used to teach the dendritic cells to recognize the diseased cell as cancer, a process that takes two to three weeks. The re-educated cells are then removed, purified, and injected into the patient. Interleukin-2 will be given to the patient to promote proliferation of the newly educated lymphocytes and killer cells.

Many cancers have characteristic molecules or tumor antigens on their surface. T-cells can recognize and bind to these markers. After manipulation and expansion in the laboratory, T cells are reintroduced into the patient and redirected toward the cancerous cells in the body using the markers on the surface of the cancerous molecules to guide them to their target.




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